You don't have to be a doctor to save lives...just an advocate with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. The Minnesota Advocacy Beat is a resource for those of you working hard to fight heart disease and stroke across MN and the country. Keep up-to-date on state policy issues, check out what is going on in the media and let us know what you are doing as a You’re the Cure advocate!

Throughout the year, our blog will feature AHA volunteer stories of survival and hope.
We know there are thousands of stories like these - thats why we want to say “Thanks” to all of you for giving your time and sharing your lives with us.
You can’t spell CURE without U! Thank you for all you do to build healthier lives free of cardiovascular disease and stroke. YOU’RE THE CURE!

We also compiled a new fact sheet, Healthy
Vending and the Randolph Sheppard Act. Federal, state, and local
governments can increase access to healthy foods and beverages for their
residents by requiring all vending service providers to ensure healthier
options are sold in vending machines on public property. Legally blind vendors
can be particularly influential in what is sold in vending facilities located
on government property because of the Randolph Sheppard Act. This fact
sheet discusses the Randolph Sheppard Act and what the law means for healthy
vending efforts. This document is attached, and can also be found on our
website at: http://www.publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/PHLC%20Healthy%20Vending%20and%20the%20Randolph%20Sheppard%20Act%208.21.2012.pdf

Monday, August 27, 2012

Robbinsdale's first-ever major crosswalk crackdown netted 80 citations over
two days for drivers who blew past two neon signs, painted pavement and even an
undercover pedestrian.

The ramped-up enforcement comes amid a rise in pedestrian deaths in Minnesota
and as cities promote walkability, which puts more pedestrians in the danger
zone.

"People are driving aggressively, they're not paying attention. ... It's not
safe," Robbinsdale Police Chief Steve Smith said about the need for crackdowns
like the sting, which prompted some residents to pull up lawn chairs to watch
the action.

Part of the problem is that drivers and walkers are more distracted than ever
before, cued in to smartphones and other diversions. The dangerous combination
is sparking new safety efforts this year by many Twin Cities communities and
also by the state, which is launching its first crosswalk safety campaign in
nearly 15 years with a slew of ads, billboards and events in the next month.

"There are more distracted drivers and more distracted pedestrians," said
Gordy Pehrson of the traffic safety office at the Minnesota Department of Public
Safety. "Not only do we need more enforcement, but we need to educate people
more, especially motorists."

In short, drivers are supposed to stop or yield to pedestrians whether
they're in a marked crosswalk or not, while walkers are supposed to enter a
crosswalk with care.

"There's a shared responsibility," he said.

Seniors requested help

The blitz to enforce and educate comes at a time when walkability is a
growing priority, with the number of people walking to their destinations up 18
percent from 2007 to 2011, according to Bike Walk Twin Cities. Cities such as
Minneapolis, Bloomington, Edina, Hopkins and St. Louis Park are all looking to
make streets more walkable with infrastructure changes.

That's prompted residents in Edina to request better enforcement of
crosswalks, spurring police to start a new annual three-week crosswalk safety
campaign this year. In July, Edina police handed out an estimated 20 citations
around popular areas such as Southdale Center and the 50th and France commercial
area.

"We've never had a focused effort like this," Edina Sgt. Tim Olson said.

In Robbinsdale, it was also residents, particularly senior citizens, who
prompted the city to step up crosswalk enforcement. Last week, police enlisted
the help of several metro area officers to nab 80 drivers, to the cheers and
thumbs-up of onlookers.

"It's an issue that generally doesn't get a lot of attention, and I think
it's an issue that needs it," Robbinsdale officer Ryan Pankratz said.

Robbinsdale enlisted the help of last year's newly formed Hennepin County
Traffic Enforcement Group, traffic officers from Minneapolis, west and north
metro suburbs and other agencies that assist one another. Initially they were
asked to help with speeders, but after Robbinsdale officers were inundated with
stops for drivers violating the crosswalk law near Sanborn Park, they reassigned
the group to visibly boost crosswalk control.

Pedestrians vs. drivers

All too often, it takes a tragedy to spur action.

Between Chanhassen and Eden Prairie, a pedestrian flasher system will be
added to an intersection on Hwy. 101 after a 12-year-old girl died when struck
by a car while crossing the highway.

In the blame game, crashes are often attributed to actions by both drivers
and pedestrians. In the 857 cases last year of Minnesota pedestrians killed or
injured -- a rise of nearly 50 from the year before -- 35 percent of drivers had
failed to yield to the pedestrians. The next biggest cause: distraction or
inattention. Of the 40 pedestrians killed, 11 were trying to cross a road
without a crosswalk or signal and 12 had consumed alcohol.

Pehrson said both drivers and pedestrians are more distracted, texting while
walking or driving (which is illegal in Minnesota), checking phones or tuning
out with music.
While other traffic-death causes such as drunken driving or not wearing seat
belts continue to dip, pedestrian deaths in Minnesota have risen since 2008
after declining over the previous decade. Because other traffic deaths have
fallen in number, pedestrian deaths now make up a higher proportion -- about 10
percent -- of overall traffic deaths.

In states like California, Pehrson said, "people literally slam on the brakes
to stop for you." It will take a cultural shift, he said, to change Minnesotans'
mind-set about crosswalks.

Starting Sept. 25 -- just ahead of October, the deadliest month for
pedestrians -- the Minnesota Department of Transportation will unveil new
billboards, radio and bus ads and stage events in Minneapolis, St. Paul, St.
Cloud, Rochester and Duluth to spread the word that every corner should be
treated as a crosswalk, marked or not.

So far this year, 15 pedestrians have died.

"We're not really seeing any big change," Pehrson said. "If we do absolutely
nothing, I don't think that the trends are going to change."

DENVER - There will be more whole grains on school lunch menus this year,
along with a wider selection of fruits and vegetables and other healthy options.
The challenge is getting children to eat them.

"We don't want healthy trash cans. We want kids who are eating this stuff,"
said Kern Halls, a former Disney World restaurant manager who now works in
school nutrition at Orange County Public Schools in Florida.

At a School Nutrition Association conference in Denver this summer, food
workers heard tips about how to get children to make healthy food choices in the
cafeteria.

The problem is a serious one for the nation's lunch-line managers, who are
implementing the biggest update to federal school-food guidelines in 15
years.

New Department of Agriculture guidelines taking effect this fall set calorie
and sodium limits for school meals. Schools must offer dark green, orange or red
vegetables and legumes at least once a week, and students are required to select
at least one vegetable or fruit per meal. Flavored milk must be nonfat, and
there's a ban on artificial, artery-clogging trans fats.

At the conference, Halls demonstrated some healthy recipes for curious
cafeteria managers, joining White House chef Sam Kass to prepare a veggie wrap
using a whole-wheat tortilla.

Halls' main mission, though, was not pushing new recipes but teaching
cafeteria managers marketing strategies used to great success by private-sector
restaurants and food producers.

The first step, cafeteria workers were told, is to stop thinking of lunchtime
as a break from academics, but a crucial part of a child's school day.

"Your job is not to serve kids food. Your job is motivate kids to be
adventurous and healthy eaters," said Barb Mechura, head of nutrition services
at schools in Hopkins, Minn.

Her school district recruited parent volunteers to be elementary-school "food
coaches," touring cafeterias and handing out samples of fruits and vegetables.
The food coaches would also demonstrate eating them. Food coaching may seem
silly, but kids who have had chicken only as nuggets or patties may not know how
to eat bone-in chicken and need to see how a grown-up eats it before trying it
themselves.

As the kids graduate to middle and high schools, and grown-ups in the
cafeteria aren't as welcome, schools can tap student ambassadors to be food
coaches, perhaps asking the baseball team or a popular student athlete dish out
veggies. Or, high school seniors might give underclassmen samples of a new
vegetable coming to the cafeteria.

School cafeterias also are using cutting-edge market research. They're
filming what kids eat, test-marketing new products before they go on the line
and doing menu surveys to find out exactly what students think about a dish's
taste, appearance and temperature.

A Colorado State University professor studied the dining habits of kids in
Loveland, Colo., with an eye toward measuring ways to get them to choose
healthier foods. Leslie Cunningham-Sabo, who photographed "before" and "after"
pictures of kids' lunch trays, found that kids eat more fruits and vegetables if
they have lunch after recess, instead of before recess. She found that corn
consumption went up when generic "corn" labels were replaced with colorful cards
describing the vegetable as "mellow yellow corn."

"Don't put veggies in opaque containers or give them boring labels like
`corn,'" Cunningham-Sabo told the lunch workers, showing diagrams of how to lay
out a service line to encourage trips to the salad bar.

Another trick — just like supermarkets place impulse buys like candy and
chewing gum by the checkout, lunch lines should place easy-to-grab fruits and
veggies by their own cash registers. Her study saw cafeterias double their sales
of fresh fruit when they placed it colorful bowls in a convenient place.

"You really have to be in their face with what's available," Cunningham-Sabo
said.

The marketing doesn't stop at the cafeteria doors. Lassen View Elementary
School in Redding, Calif., got children to eat more fruits and vegetables when
cafeteria manager Kathie Sardeson started a recess snack cart bringing the foods
straight to the playground for kids to munch on.

Her school also bought an iPad 2 to raffle away to students who entered by
choosing a healthy breakfast yogurt parfait and turning in tickets attached to
the bottom. She tempted kids to try unusual flavors by giving out "Fear Factor
Smoothies" including unexpected ingredients such as spinach. Sardeson said
schools can be persuaded to invest more in nutrition promotions because the
payoff is better students.

"We get a lot of feedback from teachers that behavior problems are way down
because the kids are eating right," Sardeson said.

Educators are coming around to recognizing value in having better school
food, Mechura told the cafeteria workers.

"Food is one of the most important influences on your everyday brain cells,"
Mechura said. Healthy eating habits, she argued, is as important as everything
else schools are trying to teach.

"We have to change," Mechura said. "We have to build an environment that
creates excitement about what we are doing rather than fear of new foods."
___

Veteran umpire performed CPR on non-responsive D-backs employee

The veteran Major League umpire performed CPR on D-backs food service
employee Jane Powers prior to the D-backs-Marlins game on Monday night.

"[The doctors] are pretty confident that they got her to the hospital in a
shape where they could treat her and get her well again," said Russ Amaral, a
D-backs vice president in charge of facilities and event services.

Joyce, who was scheduled to work the game behind the plate, arrived at the
ballpark around 5:15 p.m. MST. He was walking down a ramp that leads to the
umpire's dressing room.

Nearby, a briefing to the Levy food service workers had just broken up, and
Powers, who has worked for the D-backs since their inaugural season in 1998, was
speaking with a co-worker. She suddenly grabbed her co-worker's arm, began to
shake and then fell to the ground.

"I knew something was wrong," Joyce said. "And I knew if something wasn't
done, this lady could actually die in front of me. It was more instinct than
anything else."

Joyce began to perform CPR, something he learned in high school.

"I've always stayed up with it," Joyce said. "Everybody should know it. I
truly mean that. Everybody should know it. Because if you only have to use it
one time, it can, well ... you can see what happened."

Not long after, Marlins bullpen coordinator Jeffrey Urgelles arrived on the
scene. Urgelles was a firefighter/paramedic in the Miami-Dade County area. He
assisted Joyce and later also helped out the paramedics.

"Somebody called for a trainer," Urgelles said. "I saw one of the security
guys sprinting up the stairs. I knew then something was up, and I started
walking out of the cage to see what was happening. Ricky Nolasco screamed for
me. He was saying, 'Urgy, Urgy, they need someone who knows CPR.'

"I ran down the hallway and the lady was down on the ground. When I got
there, there was a lady down and two people there. One of the guys was doing
compression. That man ended up being Jim Joyce, the umpire. Until then, I didn't
know who he was until late last night."

A call had already been made to the D-backs' security control room to send
help, and a first responder arrived on the scene within minutes with an
automatic external defibrillator (AED). Joyce continued with the CPR while the
first responder worked with the AED.

Some 20 minutes later, Powers was transferred to an ambulance, which took her
to Good Samaritan Hospital, where she finally regained consciousness.

Joyce, meanwhile, went to the umpire's room to get ready for the game. His
fellow umpires offered to let him work third base, a less strenuous assignment
rather than working the plate.

Joyce turned them down flat.

"I couldn't stand on third base and think about it all night," Joyce said.
"And my job is to do my rotation in the crew, and nothing would have kept me
from working the plate last night. Not only that I could get my mind off it
because there's action on every pitch."

D-backs executive Roland Hemond called Joyce over to the screen behind home
plate during the game to let him know that Powers had regained consciousness and
looked like she was going to be OK.

"Obviously I wanted to know, unless it had been bad news," Joyce said. "My
wife actually told everyone if it's bad news, you don't tell him. Because I
wouldn't have been able to continue."

By Tuesday morning, Powers was doing better and doctors told D-backs
officials that she might be able to go home later this week.

"The doctors have said, 'I'll tell you what -- if it wasn't for the first
person who was on scene and the fact that you had those AED's, there's a very
fairly decent chance this would not have turned out well, and she might not have
made it to the hospital at all,'" Amaral said.

The D-backs have AED's at different locations throughout the ballpark and
have trained various front-office and event-staff members on how to operate
them.

Until Monday, though, they had never been used.

"You never know how people are going to respond until they have to use it,"
Amaral said. "Thank God we purchased these things."

Joyce and his wife, Kay, visited Powers on Tuesday, and when the umpire
walked into the room, he was so overcome with emotion, he was unable to speak.

"Thank God my wife Kay was with me, because she interpreted," Joyce said.

While he was performing CPR, Joyce was singing the song "Staying Alive" as a
way of keeping the compressions going at the right time.

Joyce asked Powers if she remembered him singing to her.

"She didn't remember that," Joyce said. "But she told my wife she remembered
my voice. I was yelling for her to come back and everything. She said she
recognized my voice, so that's really kind of cool."

A big league umpire for 24 seasons, Joyce gained notoriety in 2010 when his
missed call at first base cost Detroit's Armando Galarraga a perfect game.

Certainly Powers and the entire D-backs' organization will now remember him
for an entirely different reason. As he prepared to work Tuesday's game, Joyce
was stopped by D-backs day of game employees and front-office personnel.
Everyone, it seemed, wanted to thank him for what he had done.

"I'll be very honest with you," said Joyce, who teared up at times while
being thanked. "The way I look at it is, somebody needed help and I was
fortunate enough to know what to do. I just looked at helping someone who really
needed it. She was in bad shape and needed help."

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Actually, it would be the rare doctor who would say that to anyone. And
though it might sound like something to do with hair, in fact, deconditioning is
a familiar and more profound problem: the decidedly unnatural state of being
physically inactive.

At some point in the last few decades, the human race went from being a
species that is active most of the time to one that is increasingly sedentary.
The Lancet recently called
it an "inactivity pandemic," responsible for 1 in 10 deaths worldwide.
That's a major shift, and a major public health problem, many researchers have
pointed out. Inactivity is linked to heart disease, diabetes and some types of
cancer.

Now Michael
Joyner, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic, argues in a commentary
out this month in the Journal of Physiology that one way to deal with
the problem is to make physical inactivity a mainstream medical diagnosis. It's
one of the most common preventable causes of illness and death, and Joyner
writes, there is "one universally effective treatment for it — exercise
training."

Shots called up Joyner to get him to elaborate a little more on just why
doctors need to get more involved with this problem.

"The entire medical research industrial complex is oriented towards
inactivity," he tells us. Insurance companies will reimburse patients for pills
for diseases related to inactivity, but rarely for gym memberships. "Physicians
really need to start defining the physically active state as normal," he
says.

Joyner says that he thinks about 30 percent of the responsibility to fight
inactivity should fall on the medical community. "Physicians need to interact
with patients about being active, and they need to write prescriptions for
exercise," he says.

He points to two of the greatest public health triumphs of the 20th century —
improvements in traffic safety and the decline in smoking rates — as models for
how we should tackle the inactivity epidemic. About one-third of the behavior
change came from individuals who started using seat belts and car seats, and
those who quit smoking, and doctors directly influenced that, he says. The rest
was up to the public health community — to enact indoor smoking bans and harsh
drunken driving laws — that helped support the right behavior.

For inactivity, doctors can push patients to get exercise, and cities and
towns can make it easier for them to do it, he says, with more bike lanes and
parks that can be an alternative to the gym.

Joyner says he increasingly sees two types of patients in his clinic: the
ones who follow health guidelines and keep active; and those whose don't and see
no connection between their behavior and their health outcomes.

"We have to be more innovative and creative to figure out how to help the
people who aren't empowered to exercise for their health," he says.

Monday, August 20, 2012

(08/20/12) DULUTH, Minn. - With food shelf use in the state at a record high, Minnesota is stepping up its efforts to increase access to healthy food for the poor. A first-of-its-kind Food Access Summit will be held this week (August 21-23) in Duluth, bringing together local food activists, direct service providers, the public health community, and others involved with food and nutrition.

Christine Pulver, basic needs program director with Keystone Community Services, says there is a segment of Minnesotans who are hungry for the long term.

"But at the other end we're also seeing new people come into these programs who have never needed help before in their lives. And those are the families that are most difficult to serve, because there's a lot of pride that's getting in the way of using the services they need."
One issue of focus at the summit will be getting more senior citizens to access food programs. It's estimated that less than half of those eligible for SNAP benefits - what used to be known as food stamps - are enrolled, and Pulver says seniors can be a group that's hard to reach.

"The response that I've had from a number of seniors is they don't want to utilize the program because they want that to go to families with young children. And you want to say, 'Here you've come to a time when you yourself need it. Why not access it?'"

Pulver says another current challenge is making sure young people who are struggling with finances and finding shelter are getting nutritious meals.

"We're seeing an increase in the number of homeless youth. And those kids need a more welcoming environment when they're served in nutrition programs. They need food that's easy to prepare, and access to other services, because they're quite an at-risk population."
Pulver says that often, as things get better for those who just need help short term, they turn around and become donors themselves to various food programs. Currently, 500,000 Minnesotans access SNAP benefits monthly.
More information is at www.hungersolutions.org .

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota students heading back to school in a few weeks
are going to notice something different about their lunches.

To meet new federal guidelines, schools across the country are required to
serve up healthier lunch-time fare. That means smaller portions of meat and
protein, fewer calories and a new requirement that forces students to take more
fruits and vegetables.

The stricter school lunch guidelines set forth by the government have led
lunch directors like Jean Ronnei of the St. Paul School District to test new
lunch tray figurations.

Ronnei, the district's director of nutrition, has spent the summer poring
over recipes with her staff of dieticians.

"Fewer grains, controlled portions of meat, meat alternative, less sodium, no
trans fats," she said of the new menu.

Given such changes, it's a sure bet that the first thing students are going
to notice this fall is what's not on their plates.

The new U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines limit student lunches to
650 calories for younger students, and 850 for those in high school.

That means smaller burgers and buns, and students can forget about topping
that burger off with cheese.
Another change: lunch line workers will no longer be able to toss more bread
or extra rice on students' plates to fill them up.

The new lunch is healthier, but cafeteria workers are already bracing for the
inevitable calls from parents who will say their children are hungry because
they're not getting enough meat and protein.

So what's the option for famished students? Simple: go crazy on fruits and
vegetables.

Ronnei said students can eat as many fruits and vegetables as they want.

"Students that come through are going to need to fill up on fruits and
vegetables because some of those other items they're used to eating just won't
be there," she said.

The new federal rules go beyond encouraging students to choose healthy fruits
and vegetables. They require them. That makes for half a cup of fruits and
vegetables a day for elementary school students, three quarters of a cup for
students in grades six through eight and a full cup for high school students.

Schools that plop fruits and veggies on trays will receive a new six-cent per
meal reimbursement from the government. Whether students eat it, however,
doesn't matter.

Among the students who may go for more fruits and veggies are seven-year old
Aubrey Ross and nine-year old Kendall Ross, who attend Chelsea Heights
Elementary in St. Paul. They love vegetables.

But the lunchroom insiders know what's going to happen this fall: kids who
don't want to eat their veggies won't, regardless of the requirement.

"You should at least eat one or two pieces," Kendall said.

Among school officials, wasted food is one of the top concerns over the new
federal lunch requirements.

That's in part because schools across the country have raised their lunch
prices in recent years in anticipation of the new rules. Fresh fruits and
vegetables, especially those bought locally, cost more than the canned fruit
cocktail that used to pass muster.

The Minnesota Department of Education has been working with schools all
summer on the best way to convince students to eat the fruits and veggies they
must take on their trays. They settled on a strategy of offering a wide variety.

"This year we'll be figuring out which menus work, which foods the kids
like," said Debra Lukkonen, supervisor of school nutrition programs for the
state Department of Education. "Let's push through this together and by May
you'll have a really good menu."

Lukkonen is telling school officials that the first year of the new
requirements might be tough. She suspects that that middle and high school
students will protest the most over the new smaller bread and meat portions, and
the forced vegetable and fruit servings.

But Lukkonen is confident that younger students, especially those just
starting school, won't know lunchtime any other way and will grow into fruit and
vegetable connoisseurs in coming years.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Adolescents in states with strict laws regulating the sale of snacks and
sugary drinks in public schools gained less weight over a three-year period than
those living in states with no such laws, a new study has found.

The study, published Monday in Pediatrics, found a strong association between
healthier weight and tough state laws regulating food in vending machines, snack
bars and other venues that were not part of the regular school meal programs.
Such snacks and drinks are known as competitive foods, because they compete with
school lunches.

The conclusions are likely to further stoke the debate over what will help
reduce U.S. obesity rates, which have been rising drastically since the 1980s.
About a fifth of U.S. children are obese, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.

Public health experts have urged local and state governments to remove
competitive foods from schools. In recent years, states have started to pass
laws that restrict their sale, either banning them or setting limits on the
sugar, fat or calories they contain.

The study tracked weight changes for 6,300 students in 40 states between 2004
and 2007, following them from fifth to eighth grade. It then compared weight
changes over time in states with no laws regulating such food against those in
states with strong laws and those with weak laws.

Researchers used a legal database to analyze state laws. Strong laws were
defined as those that set out detailed nutrition standards. Laws were weak if
they merely offered recommendations about foods for sale, for example, saying
they should be healthy but not providing specific guidelines.

The study stopped short of saying the stronger laws were directly responsible
for the better outcomes. It concluded only that such outcomes tended to happen
in states with stronger laws.

But the authors argued that the study offered evidence that local policies
could be effective.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The
Olympics provide ample examples for young people to engage in fun, healthy
activities. Hopefully it will serve as an inspiration to all of us. For a
generation now, we’ve dismissed the childhood obesity epidemic, blaming it on
lazy kids and video games. Meanwhile, budgets and NCLB have some of our schools
phasing out non-high profile sports, cutting physical education and limiting
recess. Because of all the forces mentioned above, policymakers and health
advocates must get involved.What
policies will promote healthy lifestyles that young people can carry into
adulthood? Which Olympic events inspire you to live more healthfully?Share your thoughts at this week's Tuesday Talk MN 2020 Hindsight Website

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

…Through the Carol M. White Physical
Education Program, or PEP, the U.S. Department of Education awards competitive
grants to expand and improve phys. ed. and nutrition education programs for
students of all ages. In this round of funding, 25 states split $27
million. The winning programs must help students make
progress toward passing their state standards for physical education and
secondarily, must teach students about good nutrition and healthy eating
habits. (edited from news clip published in Education Week.) “The PEP
grant money can be spent on staff and teacher training, to buy equipment—though
not entire playgrounds or other facilities, develop curricula, assess students'
fitness, and to collect data and evaluate programs.” Here’s the link to the
full article:http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/schooled_in_sports/2012/07/schools_community_groups_win_27_million_in_phys_ed_nutrition_grants.html

As you may recall, prior to enactment of the MN Healthy Kids
legislation in 2010, MN school districts were ineligible for the federal PEP
grant funds because our state lacked statewide PE standards. The 2010 legislation
required MN school districts to adopt PE (NASPE) standards by the 2012-13
school year, thus opening the door for the districts to apply for PEP funding.
The program specifically targets school districts that are having difficulty
meeting state standards. Two
MN school districts are among this year’s recipients:

Monday, August 6, 2012

The Healthy Minnesota Partnership on Monday approved Healthy Minnesota 2020, a framework for creating a Minnesota where everyone has the opportunity to be healthy.

The Healthy Minnesota Partnership is a broad statewide coalition of community leaders from business, government, academia, nonprofits, advocacy groups, providers, insurers and others. Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger convened the group in January of this year.

“It is our hope that this provides a framework for different groups to work together to make sure that every Minnesotan has the opportunity to be healthy,” said Donna Zimmerman, a member of the partnership, a member of the Itasca Project, and senior vice president of government and community relations at HealthPartners. “We are not only talking about health care or the medical system here but are talking about how we can achieve what we all want, which is to live in communities that help us lead healthy and fulfilling lives.”

In the development of the Healthy Minnesota 2020 framework, the partnership considered an extensive range of factors that contribute to health, including social, economic and environmental conditions, as well as individual and community factors. The framework is based on the results of a first-of-its-kind in Minnesota statewide health assessment conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health.

“Where we live, play, learn, and work has a huge impact on our health,” said Ehlinger. “Because of this, our goal is to improve the social, economic, and physical environments of our communities so that all Minnesotans have the opportunity to be healthy and reach their fullest potential.”

The framework notes that good health is the result of complex factors that go beyond any one sector or organization. The framework features wide-ranging strategies that provide ways for multiple sectors to collaborate to pursue the goal of statewide health improvement.

The major themes of the framework call for Minnesota to:
•Capitalize on the opportunity to influence health in early childhood.
•Ensure that the opportunity to be healthy is available everywhere for everyone.
•Strengthen communities to create their own healthy futures.

The implementation of Healthy Minnesota 2020 will be led by the Healthy Minnesota Partnership and the Minnesota Department of Health and representatives from diverse sectors and communities.

The partnership hopes that the framework will help change the conversation about health and energize the public, private and nonprofit sectors to work toward a more comprehensive approach focused on creating health.

To support the partnership’s effort, the Minnesota Department of Health produced the Health of Minnesota, a two-part assessment that provides a comprehensive look at the state of health in Minnesota.

The first part of the assessment discusses a wide array of factors affecting health in Minnesota, such as education, housing, economic vitality, transportation, and the environment. The second part reports data on a wide array of health outcomes including some related to cancer, heart disease, infectious disease, obesity, injuries and violence.

The assessment reflects a growing body of research indicating that health starts outside of the doctor’s office. In fact, only about 20 percent of health outcomes are influenced by clinical care. In reality, health is much more strongly influenced by physical and social environments – where people live, work and play. The assessment looks at health in this broader sense as a state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

The statewide health assessment finds that Minnesota in many respects is one of the healthiest states in the country and a great place to live. However, the report also found that not all Minnesotans have the same chances to be healthy: those with less money, and populations of color and American Indians, consistently have less opportunity for health and experience worse health outcomes. The rapidly changing demographics of Minnesota and the increasing income inequities indicate that this issue will most likely get worse.

Here is a sampling of some of the other statewide public health trends the assessment found.
•Minnesota has some of the largest race- and ethnicity-based health disparities in the United States.
•Minnesota also has major inequities in the factors that create the opportunity to be healthy, including childhood poverty rates, per-capital income, employment, on-time high school graduation rates, and incarceration rates.
•Minnesota has one of the highest binge drinking rates in the country, although rates are declining among teens.
•Exposure to secondhand smoke at work in Minnesota has been cut in half since 2003.
•Safety belt use has considerably increased and traffic fatalities have accordingly decreased.
•Cancer is now the No. 1 cause of death in Minnesota, due to a dramatic decrease in deaths from heart disease.
•The state has seen a tenfold increase in tick borne diseases.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

We have redesigned the conference logo to fit
with the evolving nature of the program and its focus. We have also added
a new partner, Greater Twin Cities United Way.

About the Conference

Many Faces of Community Health is a two day
conference that explores ways to improve care for chronic illness and help
underserved populations and those living in poverty achieve health equity. Our
2012 theme is Stepping
Up to Transform Health Care.

As policy reform heats up, Community Health
Centers are "stepping up" to challenges and
opportunities in the new environment of market innovation. CHCs and
their partners are forging the best ideas and tools into new delivery models
to promote health equity, to prevent chronic disease, and to assure access
for the underserved - now and into the future.

Conference Information and Content
All Online

In an effort to keep your conference costs as
low as possible and to be more sustainable, we have moved all conference
information and content online. No conference brochure will be mailed
out; instead you can view the current content and registration information
online. All updates to conference information will be posted online
ensuring you will always have the most current information.

Conference Audience

The Many Faces Conference brings together a
diverse group of over 300 individuals, including health care professionals and
students, clinic management, payers, government and community organizations,
public health, social services, policy makers, health activists and others.

CLICK HERE to visit the conference website to learn more
and register today.

Extending
National Diabetes Prevention Program Could Save Billions of Dollars, Reduce Diabetes
Incidence in Seniors by over 70 Percent

WASHINGTON, D.C. [07/31/12]—Today,
U.S. Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), and Jay Rockefeller
(D-W.Va.) introduced legislation that would extend the National Diabetes
Prevention Program – which has been proven to significantly reduce the
incidence of diabetes among seniors – to all seniors covered by Medicare.
Studies have shown that extending the program to Medicare patients could save
the federal government billions of dollars per year.

"Hundreds
of thousands of Minnesotans struggle with diabetes, and even more are at risk
of developing it, but for many people, this disease is very
preventable," said Sen.
Franken. "That's why I introduced this legislation, which would
extend the proven Diabetes Prevention Program to millions of seniors all over
the country. For adults at a high risk for diabetes who are over the age
of 60, this program reduces the likelihood that they will get type 2 diabetes
by over 70 percent. By extending this program, we can
help seniors stay happier and healthier and, at the same
time, save our taxpayers billions of dollars every year."

"We
need to focus on common-sense health care policy approaches that save money
while also improving Americans’ health outcomes," said Sen. Lugar. "The Diabetes
Prevention Program achieves this aim by preventing the development of type 2
diabetes for many individuals at high risk for the disease. By offering disease
prevention initiatives like the Diabetes Prevention Program to Medicare
beneficiaries, we stand to reduce the prevalence of costly and life-threatening
chronic disorders and save taxpayers money in the process."

"Diabetes
is a national epidemic and a serious problem in West Virginia, affecting more
than 1 in 10 adults in the state," said Sen. Rockefeller. "This bill will reduce diabetes by
expanding a proven diabetes prevention program to seniors on Medicare. It
will improve the health of millions of seniors, and in many cases help them
avoid diabetes altogether. It also reduces health costs nationwide since
diabetes is one of the most burdensome diseases to our health care system. And
it will create jobs to help build these diabetes prevention programs in
communities throughout the country. This bill is a win-win, and I can’t
overstate the importance of it and this program for our families and
communities."

Also cosponsoring the legislation
are Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). For more
information on the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Act, please click here.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Somehow I doubt that the athletes competing in the London Olympics trained on
a diet that included regular servings of McDonald’s Happy Meals, Coca-Cola soft
drinks and Cadbury’s chocolate bars.

But that’s what our children may think as they’re bombarded with ads from
these three official Olympic food sponsors over the next two weeks. For, as a
public health official told a BBC news reporter earlier this year, research suggests
that children perceive junk food to be less unhealthy when it’s associated with
sporting events.

And the food manufacturers know this. Cadbury’s (the games’ official “treat”
sponsor) has called the Olympics “the biggest sales opportunity of our
lifetime.” That’s not hyperbole. Cadbury’s pre-games Willy-Wonka-like “Unwrap
Gold” promotion was the most successful in the company’s history.

Coca-Cola also had huge pre-game success with its sponsorship of the Olympic
torch relay celebration that (literally) ran throughout England for weeks. The
company’s logo was constantly visible at these family-oriented events, and
Coca-Cola promotional products and samples were handed out to children as well
as adults by people in tracksuits along the relay route. (Marketing junk food
directly to children is normally banned in Britain.)

McDonald's has celebrated the Olympic spirit by building its largest-ever
restaurant (seating capacity: 1,500). The company expects to sell 50,000 Big
Macs, 100,000 servings of french fries and 30,000 milkshakes during the 29 days
of the Olympics and its companion event, the Paralympics.

‘The Obesity Olympics’

Earlier this week, the London-based Children’s
Food Campaign (CFC) released a scathing report called “The Obesity
Olympics” that takes the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to task for
permitting junk-food manufacturers to continue to sponsor the Games.

“Even before a medal has been won, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Cadbury’s are
already big winners of the Games,” write the authors of the report. “Their
sponsorship buys them unchallenged prominence and it gives them a particularly
valuable association with athleticism and success. They want people either to
forget that their flagship brands are high in calories, sugar and fat, or
believe instead that consuming such food and drink is part of a healthy, and
‘winning’ formula. The increased emphasis these companies place on
‘obesity-offsetting’ — funding sports equipment and exercise schemes — is also
part of their drive to convince us that they are trying to be a positive force
for the nation’s health.”

You’d have to do a lot of “offsetting” to counter the calories in the
flagship junk-food products sold by McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Cadbury, the
report points out. To burn off the calories in a meal that includes a Big Mac
and a medium-sized Coca-Cola, you’d need to bicycle for 110 minutes, for
example. And to undo the calories in a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bar, you’d
need to swim laps for 30 minutes.

“The Olympics have become a celebration of 'big,'” a CFC official told the Guardian. “For the junk food companies who sponsor
the Games, that means big restaurants, big audiences, big brand value, big
profits. But for children that could also mean bigger waistlines and bigger
health problems later in life."

A cynical strategy

IOC president Jacques Rogge acknowledged this summer that there might be a “question mark”
over the suitability of having fast-food manufacturers sponsor the Olympics. But
that didn’t keep the IOC from letting McDonald’s and Coca-Cola sign up for
another two rounds of the Games.

“What we now see coming to fruition in London2012,” write the authors of the
CFC report, “is a cynical money-before-health strategy that values pounds in the
pocket, but ignores the pounds of fat in our already obese society, contradicts
medical advice and undermines parents’ best efforts to encourage their children
to eat healthily.

“Members of the International Olympic Committee must hold up their hands and
recognise that they bear some responsibility,” the report adds. “Ultimately
though, it is up to all of us — whether spectators, armchair fans or Olympic
refuseniks — to make a stand against the double standards which see companies
making fat profits out of a sporting event at the expense of the health of our
children and young people. If we do so, London2012 could yet have a more
positive legacy: as the start of a successful movement to change the way the
Games, and other major sporting events, select their sponsors and expect them to
behave.”

Don’t hold your breath.

Countering the message

Parents will need to make an extra effort this Olympics to point out to their
children that athletes don’t become top competitors by eating nutrient-poor and
calorie-laden burgers, soft drinks and chocolate bars, no matter what the TV ads
suggest. In fact, not eating such foods is what makes them more
competitive.

Take the example of Ryan Lochte, the 27-year-old American swimmer who is
likely to win several medals in London. He overhauled his diet after not
performing as well as he hoped in the 2008 Olympics.

Before, his typical breakfast was often “two or three McDonald’s egg
McMuffins, some hashbrowns and maybe a chicken sandwich,” he
told People magazine’s Kristen Mascia. And he’d down a whole bag of chips
before each practice. Now, however, Lochte starts his day with scrambled eggs,
fruit and oatmeal, and eats salads or healthy wraps for lunch and dinner. His
new diet has made him much fitter, he told Mascia.
That’s a great message for our children — and one no Olympics sponsor will be
promoting.

The Food Access Summit is focused on increasing access to healthy food for
low-income Minnesotans, learning about the health and economic benefits of a
healthy food system, and increasing the dialouge between the public health,
anti-hunger, and food production and distribution communities in Minnesota.
How can we
work together to increase access to healthy food for low-income Minnesotans?
What are the health and economic benefits of a healthy food system?

This
statewide summit will provide information and action-oriented ideas on how food
policy, food systems and food literacy impact low-income Minnesotans.
Participants will learn about barriers to healthy food for low-income
Minnesotans and share perspectives from a variety of sectors.

You're the Cure

The American Heart Association is always looking for committed and active advocates -- like you-- to join our You're the Cure advocacy network. This group of volunteers contacts their elected officials to help pass important heart-healthy policies in their state and across the nation.